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Surgeon behind first successful heart transplant in United States dies

Pioneering surgeon Dr. Denton Cooley died Friday aged 96. He also performed the world's first surgery implanting an artificial heart.

Dr. Denton Cooley, who performed the first successful heart transplant in the United States and the world's first artificial heart implantation, died Friday.

Cooley died at the age of 96 in his Houston home, surrounded by family, said a spokeswoman for Texas Children's Hospital, where he worked earlier in his career. Cooley estimated he operated on about 100,000 people and developed techniques for cardiovascular surgery. He also received many accolades in his life, including the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest American civilian award.

Dr. Denton Cooley performed the first successful heart transplant in the United States in 1968

"Nothing can compare with the activity of the human heart," Cooley once said in an interview. "And besides that, it's always had a special connotation in our society, or in our life. It's been the seat of the soul and the seat of emotions."

Cooley performed the first successful heart transplant in the United States in May 1968 at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas. He placed the heart of a 15-year-old girl into Everett Thomas, a 47-year-old accountant from Phoenix. Thomas was able to leave the hospital and lived for nearly seven months with the organ.

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Living with an artificial heart

Living with an artificial heart

"Denton's pioneering contributions to medicine are, of course, legend," said former US President George H.W. Bush, who lives in Houston, in a statement.

In April 1969, Cooley implanted the world's first artificial heart into a patient waiting for a new heart. The device kept 47-year-old Haskell Karp alive for 65 hours until Cooley could perform a transplant. Karp died the day after surgery. That procedure led to a feud between Cooley and his partner, Dr. Michael DeBakey, as DeBakey developed the artificial heart in his laboratory and Cooley used the device without DeBakey's approval. The feud between the two surgeons lasted until 2007 when Cooley presented DeBakey with a lifetime achievement award. DeBakey died in 2008.

kbd/kl (AP, Reuters)

The heart - a beating technical marvel

More love for your heart

An international study found many of us believe only older people are at risk of heart attacks - and as a result, that only older people have to be careful. But the German Heart Foundation says that's not true. The earlier you start looking after your heart - through an active lifestyle and healthy diet - the better. After all, you've only got one heart!

The heart - a beating technical marvel

Nifty little pump

The heart is a marvel of technology. The fist-sized, hollow muscle contracts about 70 times per minute, pumping up to 10,000 liters of blood through the body. And it does that your whole life. If necessary, the heart can pump about five times that much blood - for instance, when we are jogging.

The heart - a beating technical marvel

Real muscle work

The heart may be "just" a muscle - but it's a very special one. Like the muscles in your legs and arms, it can contract as fast and with as much power. But the heart has incredible stamina, and never gets tired. What's more, all heart muscle cells are linked, so they contract in unison.

The heart - a beating technical marvel

Life saver

If a heart beats slower than it should, a patient can be fitted with a pacemaker. First implanted in 1958, the device sends electrical impulses to the heart muscle. These days, pacemakers can function for from five to 12 years - on average, about eight.

The heart - a beating technical marvel

Open-heart surgery

To operate on a heart, surgeons have to stop it temporarily. This halts the circulation of blood - which would technically be fatal. But in the 1950s, scientists were able to solve this problem by developing the heart-lung machine. That machine takes over the function of the heart and lungs, enriching the blood with oxygen and pumping it through the body.

The heart - a beating technical marvel

The heart via the groin

Modern medicine allows doctors to examine and perform surgery on the heart without cutting open the patient's ribcage. Instead, an intracardiac catheter - more or less a thin plastic tube - is inserted through veins and arteries in the groin, the elbow or the wrist. This tube is then pushed into the heart, requiring only local anesthesia.

The heart - a beating technical marvel

Foldable heart valve

If a heart valve is not working or worn out, you need a new one. Doctors might use a biological replacement from pigs, and mechanical heart valves made from metal are also an alternative. Modern artificial heart valves are foldable (pictured above) and can be inserted in endoscopic surgery via a catheter. This way, no open-heart operation is needed.

The heart - a beating technical marvel

Putting heart into it

The first heart transplantation took place in 1967 - quite a sensation, back then. Nowadays, this operation is no longer a rarity. Every year, surgeons around the world transplant several thousand donor hearts from people who have died. The patients who receive a donor heart, however, have to take medication for the rest of their lives to prevent their own body from rejecting the foreign organ.

The heart - a beating technical marvel

A pump inside

Donor hearts are rare, and there are waiting lists for recipients. If a heart is not working properly anymore, an artificial heart may support it. In that case, the sick heart stays in the body, and is supported by an implanted pump. This pump is powered by an external energy supply.

The heart - a beating technical marvel

Plastic heart

One research dream is to create an artifical heart that can replace the sick patient's heart completely. It would be inserted into the body, not require any external connection and would beat for many years without failure. Not an easy task - although some prototypes already exist.